Selfie on Facebook helps police nab rape accused

New Delhi, March 10 (IANS) A phone number found in a selfie posted by a rape accused on his Facebook account helped the Delhi Police arrest him from Gurugram, the police said here on Sunday. The accused was on the run for over three years.

"Rahul Victor, 24, a driver, was arrested from his residence in Sikanderpur in Gurugram on Sunday. In 2015, he had sexually assaulted a girl known to him after offering her a cold drink laced with an intoxicated substance," said Deputy Commissioner of Police Vijay Kumar.

"After the victim lost consciousness, Victor raped her and took photographs and made video clips of it, which he later used to blackmail the victim and repeat the crime on several occasions. He also threatened to make the photographs viral on the internet.

"A resident of south Delhi, the victim on February 10, 2016 filed a case against Victor with the Delhi Police South District," Kumar said.

The police could not arrest the accused for three years despite hunt. Victor was using an Aircel sim at the time of crime, but his call records couldn't be retrieved as the company shut operations, the DCP said.

After scanning over 150 Facebook accounts with names similar to that of the accused, the police finally found Victor's selfie in one of them. The selfie was taken in front of a shop next to a restaurant in which the phone number of the shopkeeper could be seen on a display board," he said.

"The police contacted the shopkeeper and got a tip-off that Victor worked as a delivery boy in the restaurant in 2017 and stayed in Gurugram," the DCP said. That helped in arresting Victor, he added.